Her eyes flared open, the same with her body, as she lurched forward. Her world was not swaying because she rocked back and forth on the ocean. There was no creak of wood… And she hadn’t smacked her head on a thick beam of wood that was supposed to be above her bed.

Jysmn was not on the fishing boat, Little Coral, anymore.

Trying to make her eyes adjust to the surprisingly unlit room, Jysmn felt the expensive silk blanket fall from her body. Blinking down at her chest, which was wrapped with thick, pure white bandages, she felt what must have been bruising. She had hit the roof rather hard… And fallen from it.

If she saw that guard again, she would give him a taste of his own medicine.

Through gritted teeth, Jysmn swung her legs over the side of the bed, fighting back the gasp of pain. Definitely hurt something under those bandages. Taking shallow breaths, she let her bare feet press against the cold, marble floor. Grunting in pain, Jysmn forced herself to stand, despite the pain. She clenched her jaw so hard she swore her tooth cracked.

Heaving an unsteady breath, Jysmn let her eyes adjust to the dark. She didn’t recognise the place. It had a wall coated in thick, dark material, with sun light fighting to peak out from beneath it. The room was fairly big, considering it only held the cot she was sleeping on.

The thick door, adjacent to the curtains, swung open with determined force.

“If I pull these curtain’s open and you’re gone, I’m going to hunt you down myself,” came an eerily familiar voice. The woman surged through the room, her voice soft, despite her threat. As promised, the curtain was hefted open.

Jysmn lurched back, covering her eyes as the bright light assaulted her. She had only just started getting used to the dark.

“You’re still over dramatic, I see,” the same voice snorted again. Very un-lady like, but at the same time said with such grace and sweetness. The most non threatening woman.

Jysmn couldn’t believe her eyes as they settled on the young woman. The same age as her. Her low born best friend… Or was, two years ago.

Marvella had changed since the last time she’d seen her. The tomboy who had clipped her hair so short she was mistaken for a boy, often going by Marv, was no longer dressed in dirty pants and shirts. Marvella’s hair had grown out, recently clipped, to sit just bellow her breasts. The wheat colour was no longer tangled looking and instead hung in strong waves. She wore a pale cream dress, that accentuated the dip of her full breasts and she could even see the waist of a woman beneath the cloudy material.

She didn’t look low born anymore. Jysmn wondered if she had married, or got a job of her own. No doubt here. At the palace. Living somewhere in the servants quarters. Nearby to the Lords, Ladies and the Royals.

One thing about Marvella was still the same though. She was still painstakingly short.

“Marv,” Jysmn gasped. Finally speaking after what had felt like forever. Jysmn hobbled to her smiling friend, wrapping her arms tightly around the young woman’s neck.

“I am glad they gave you a shower, because Gods be damned you stunk,” Marvella said into Jysmn’s thick hair. “You were on the ocean for gods sake, you’d think you’d have jumped in and had a bath.”

At least Marvella still had a mouth on her. Jysmn couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she pulled away from their embrace. Marvella had a little collection of freckles on her face and shoulders. Telling Jysmn she still worked in the sun. Yet, Marvella’s hands were still soft.

“Your hair smells like flowers,” Jysmn muttered, twining her hands into the soft hair of her friend, bringing it to her nose.

“Thank you, I made the shampoo myself. Perhaps I should bring you some, stinky,” Marvella chuckled, studying Jysmn. Jysmn wished she had the colour of her friends eyes. Almost everyone did, who had the same brown eyes as Jysmn. Marvella’s eyes were the colour of seaweed and oak tree leaves.

“It’s good to see you’ve still got a tongue on you,” Jysmn said with a snort. Marvella had never talked about the scent of something. Especially considering she grew up in a hovel with her hateful family. Two years had changed more than Marvella’s hair.

She and the low born girl would pelt rocks at the guards and steal bread from the bakery. They would climb the rooves and eat and bake in the sun. Until they turned sixteen and Jysmn couldn’t steal anymore. Marvella’s life had been threatened.

“I’m your sisters personal maid,” Marvella said, dipping lowly. “I learn the sharpness form her.”

Jysmn’s throat spasmed at the thought of her family. Her mother and father, and older sister. She was back home. She’d have to see them again. And she doubted they were going to let her escape for a second time.

She had only come back because word had reached her the King was dying. She remembered the day she got the news. She swore the whole sea turned savage with rage, trying to capsize them. The ship docked a week later, today. They had come to pay their respects, and to drop off the High Lord’s daughter. Her father part of the High King’s Council.

Not to mention, a part of her had missed this place and her family. Family including Marvella.

“My sister has always been a snake in the grass,” Jysmn said through gritted teeth. Not for hatred from her older sister, but because of the tightness of her chest. All her injuries blaring out at her painfully.

“If that Lord wasn’t so scary with his magic, I would have slapped him for what he did to you, My Lady,” Marvella said, scrunching her face as she noticed Jysmn’s pain. She chose to ignore the fact that Marvella called her My Lady.

“That was a Lord?” Jysmn asked, hissing in pain as Marvella pressed her fingers at her bandages. Jysmn doubted that two years had given Marvella a healers hand. “Why was he wearing a guards uniform?”

“Seon to Lord Gabrielle,” she said, shrugging. Leading Jysmn back to the cot she had woken in, Marvella made to shove her back down. “I have been instructed to welcome you back by your Mother. And to prepare you for tonight’s party, My Lady.”

“Why did they send you to get me ready?” Jysmn scoffed, tugging the bandage away from her body. Marvella didn’t stop her. “When I knew you, you couldn’t even fold.”

Marvella’s smile was sadder than Jysmn had expected it to be. “I am very good at my job, looking after others. Despite what you think… My Lady.”

They fell into the one thing they had both been trying to avoid. The awkwardness crushed down on Jysmn like an entire ten meter by ten meter net filled with fish. She couldn’t breath, nor could she bring herself to say anything. She couldn’t even search her mind to question why there was a party. And why even Jysmn was invited.

Marvella continued in silence. As if she was used to being ignored. Yet, there was a sense of gentleness to her face. Jysmn wanted to scream at her. Wanting to beg where the real Marv really was, because this wasn’t a woman she recognised.

Why was she in this room?

Where was her family?

Had they come to visit her?

Marvella didn’t shy away when the bandages revealed that Jysmn wasn’t wearing anything beneath them. Jysmn’s own face flushed in embarrassment. Marvella had shied away from any kind of femminity or nakedness. Yet, she seemed confident in it now.

Jysmn wanted to roll her eyes and knock herself out when she saw the dress Marvella brought her. “I’m in no mood to wear that,” she spat, lurching away from the deep pinks of the puffy dress. Her hands cupped her naked chest, shying away from Marvella. Jysmn was in no way a virgin, those two years she had experimented freely, but with her childhood friend in the room… It felt wrong.

Marvella remained passive at her naked chest. Her tiny hands ran along the material of the sparkling skirt. She seemed to be in love with the dress, unlike Jysmn.

“I think it’s pretty.”

“I didn’t realise you were blind,” Jysmn said, hissing, as her finger pressed against her bruised rib. Marvella simply huffed out a breath.

“I have orders that you must wear this dress,” she said, emphasising that this was the dress Jysmn had to wear. As if following orders was something Marvella was doing without question. Jysmn tried to shy away from the dress, but Marvella gripped her by the upper arm with surprising roughness.

Yanking Jysmn to her feet, the maid wasted no time tearing Jysmn’s pants around her ankles. The dark haired woman only blinked in shock as Marvella pulled out delicate underthings.

“I can dress myself,” she found herself barking out angrily. Marvella didn’t balk, only bowed her head and took a step back. Too used to being spoken to like that. Jysmn didn’t apologise, even if the guilt bubbling through her threatened to choke her.

On shaking legs, Jsymn fumbled with the underthings. They were a cream, much more yellow than beige, and clasped onto stockings and a light corset. Jsymn always throught the ruffles at her buttocks were always a little stupid looking.

Breathing loudly through her nose, Jysmn didn’t shove Marvella away as she held the disaster of a dress up. The maid pulling it down her arms, and passed her shoulders. Marvella mussed had dressed decades of other women. Jysmn allowed her to fix the dress to her body, as she begrudgingly stood still.

Staring down at the dress, Jysmn didn’t fix the anger that had etched its way into her furrowed brows. The dress had at least three layers of different sheer pinks over a plain white cotton. They poofed out from her waist, cinching in just to poof out again around her upper bodice.

“Your mother thought this would be the most fitting gown. I think it was a good choice, it covers your bruises, My Lady,” Marvella said with a curtsy. Gone was their informal greetings from before. Now it was My Lady, curtsy’s and being dressed by another person. “I can guarantee no one else will be wearing it.”

“Yes, because I look stupid,” Jysmn growled, trying to flatten it out around her body.

Marvella stepped forward, attention on the dress. She tried to adjust it, the material itching at both of them. Only one of them had to wear it for an unreasonable amount of time.

“I will have the seamstress take your new measurements tomorrow and she can prepare you a new wardrobe, My Lady,” Marvella said, head bowed, her hands clasped infront of her. The submission from a trained maiden. Jysmn wanted to throttle her sister for what she’d done to her free-spirited friend. “Your other clothes won’t be able to fit, I will inform your mother.”

“You can have them,” Jysmn found herself saying. Staring at the small woman who would no doubt be a closer fit to her old clothes than she was.

Her body was now atoned to the seas and to the dangers within and on them. There was no need for the frilly, small dresses she had worn when she was younger.

“I shouldn’t, My Lady,” Marvella gushed, eyes locking with Jysmn’s for just a moment.

“I insist, you have more use for them then I do,” she said. This was the closest she would get to apologising. For snapping. For leaving. For who she was now.

“As you wish, My Lady,” Marvella said, her eyes alight, gleaming excitedly. Jysmn wondered if this is what her family had wanted from her. Marvella was the picture perfect Lady. Only one problem, she wasn’t a lady.

“Why are they throwing a party, I thought the King was ill?” she asked the maid, letting her calloused hands glide over her uncomfortable dress. She especially hated as it drew attention to her shoulders, as it didn’t cover them, instead dipped across her chest and shoulders. Flaring across her arms down to her wrists. Pink was far from her favourite colour.

Jysmn knew she looked far from attractive in a dress that her mother would have once called a “compensation” dress. A woman only wore distracting dresses if they were compensating for one of the three b’s; beauty, brains or bosoms.

Marvella would never have to wear a compensation dress. Even in what have been her simple work uniform, all eyes drew to her. Something about her constant, carefree smile that complimented her face that made Jysmn writhe with jealousy.

Then again, beauty didn’t last when you’re hauling fish in and out of the water.

Perhaps with whatever she could take from Jysmn’s old wardrobe would be done justice on such a pretty woman. As if sensing someone appreciating her beauty, she twirled around, her hair cascading on the wind…

Much like how Jysmn had.

Magic didn’t pass on to everyone. Marvella being one of them. But who needed magic when you had filled out to be heart stoppingly beautiful.

And magic was hard to muster. It took Jysmn’s breath from her own lungs. Not letting her breath while she used it. Every magic had its price.

Jysmn wondered what price the Lord Gabrielle’s son, the guard, had paid when he did what he had done. She could still feel the ghost of a hand wrapping around her mind, even if she watched Marvella set up, to her horror, makeup, onto the bed.

Jysmn didn’t bother to hide her disgust.

“Our King is nearing his death bed. But this party is to celebrate the fish season, and your homecoming,” Marvella informed her.

The room around her was empty still. No one else entered. Jysmn wasn’t even sure where exactly Marvella was getting everything from. Until she noticed the maiden on her knees, pulling things from under the bed.

Jsymn was confided to some room she didn’t recognise.

“Where am I?” she finally asked, watching Marvella skin test a few lipsticks.

The maid looked up at her with surprisingly guilty green eyes. “This is your room.”

Jysmn was taken aback. Then she took note of the familiarity of the walls, especially the large window, overlooking the courtyard below. Yet, every one of her personal possession’s were gone. Her large Queen sized bed with an expensive wooden poster beams that reached to the high rooves, pink sheer fabric that was pulled up at the top, overhanging beside her bed. Her vanity and three dark oak wardrobes… Clothes and shoes… Gone. Only left with a plain cot in the corner.

Lifting her chin in the air, to stop herself from tearing up or from pride… Jysmn didn’t ask anymore questions as Marvella painted her face with gentle strokes.

Everything felt wrong. Jysmn promised herself she wouldn’t call this place home. Made a promise to herself.